Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Dear Washington University Parents,
As you may already be aware from speaking to your student, reading communications from the university, or from news
reports, there was an incident this afternoon at Washington University that resulted in one person being shot on Forsyth
Boulevard, which is directly adjacent to the Danforth Campus. The individual, an employee of our food services partner
Bon Appétit, sustained non-life threatening injuries. She was treated at a local hospital and is expected to make a full
recovery.
This, of course, follows two other recent incidents involving weapons on or near the Danforth or Medical Campus.
Combined, we know this has understandably caused some concern and I want to take the opportunity to tell you a bit
about how we share information during an emergency and how we keep our community safe.
During today's incident, a series of university-wide alerts were issued to our students, faculty and staff, asking them to
take shelter while police investigated. Once we were certain there was no longer a threat, we issued an all-clear to inform
our community that they could resume their normal activities.
Clearly, this incident was difficult for our entire community, and I imagine it was probably extremely unsettling for many of
you as well. The university does have a comprehensive system in place for notifying our students, faculty and staff to help
keep them safe during an emergency. These alerts include text messages, phone calls, email, pop-up computer
messages, beacons, sirens and updates to our websites. But you may be wondering how you can be kept informed in the
event of an emergency. There are a number of ways you can get updates.
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First and foremost, please consider downloading the WUSTL Mobile app, which is the fastest and easiest way
for anyone without a Washington University email address to receive alerts. The app is available
for iOS or Android. It is important that you enable push notifications to receive alerts.
In the event of an emergency, updates will be posted to emergency.wustl.edu. Recorded information will also be
available by calling 314-935-9000.
You may also wish to follow the university on social media (Facebook and Twitter).
I have sent a message to students to make them aware of resources that are available to them should they wish to seek
support in dealing with the stress of this situation, including counselors who will be available this evening until 10 p.m.
CDT in the Lien House Lobby on the South 40.
As always, I encourage our students at any time to reach out to a counselor, faculty member or friend, or to contact a
member of my staff if they need anything at all. You also, of course, are always welcome to call me at 314-935-4526, or
Dean of Students Justin Carroll at 314-935-5081, if we can be of any assistance to you.
We are grateful for the response from emergency personnel to today’s incident, and for the many others who worked
quickly to keep our community safe. We also are thankful that our students in particular took the alerts seriously and took
the appropriate precautions.
Please know that the safety and well-being of our students is our highest priority and we take very seriously our
commitment to ensuring that they are informed and know what to do in the event of an emergency. And again, we
encourage you to utilize the channels above so you can also stay informed. As always, we thank you for placing your trust
in us.
Sincerely,
Lori S. White, PhD
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs